On Thursday, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan joined representatives from five banks and Gov. Rick Snyder in a home on Detroit's northwest side to announce the "Detroit Home Mortgage" program, which seeks to mitigate the appraisal financing gap in the city.

Potential well-qualified home buyers couldn't get a loan for a $60,000 house in Detroit, because of low property values in the surrounding area, but the same buyer could easily pick up a $200,000 loan for a house in Ferndale.

"Nothing is going to work if you can't get a mortgage," Duggan said.

The new program is one step toward lessening the disparity between downtown Detroit and the neighborhoods well outside the 7.2-square-mile greater downtown area.

It's been in the works for about a year. Duggan said he spoke to President Barack Obama during his early 2015 visit to a Ford plant. Obama asked what he could do to help Detroit, and Duggan told him how hard it was for people to get loans for some of the most beautiful houses in the city.

"If you think that the city is coming back...the greatest source of wealth building is homeownership," Duggan said, and people haven't been able to get loans to buy homes in Detroit. Then Duggan met with former President Bill Clinton, who, through the Clinton Global Initiative, pushed several banks to come up with a solution to the problem of homeownership in Detroit.

Snyder and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority chipped in, too.

The Detroit Home Mortgage program represents a collaboration between Huntington Bank, Flagstar Bank, Talmer Bank and Trust, FirstMerit bank, Liberty Bank, the Ford Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, and the state housing development authority.

Together, the organizations created a $40-million fund to lend qualified buyers a second mortgage of up to $75,000 in addition to a first mortgage for the appraised value of their house.

The second mortgage is meant to fill in the discrepancy between the actual cost of the house and the appraised value.

Duggan stressed that the program is not a low-income housing initiative, or a program meant to get people with bad credit a loan. The new program is meant to solve an issue in Detroit at a unique time in the city's history: everyone's talking about a comeback, but hardly anyone owns property in Detroit when compared to those renting.

"We've solved the appraisal problem," he said. "You'll be able to get a house in Detroit."

Officials said they expect 1,000 mortgages to be written using the program.

"If you've got a steady job and a good credit score, you can go in today if you want to buy a house in Detroit...you can get a mortgage," Duggan said.

The multi-tiered effort brings together private and public entities, as well as state, local and federal government.

At some point, the program would be needed, Duggan said.

"This is eventually going to solve itself," he said.

Detroit City Councilman James Tate said the program is a step toward solving the issue of the massive differences between the quality of life downtown, and that in the neighborhoods.

"I'm excited about having moving trucks moving in, not just out," Tate said.

Even in North Rosedale Park, one of the most densely populated neighborhoods outside of the downtown drag, there are a lot of vacancies, one resident said.

This might be good for the city, he said.

Snyder spoke at the event.

"Who doesn't today see a bright future for Detroit?" he asked. "Today is a bigger inflection point than we realize."

Snyder pointed out that the city has been making progress in Detroit neighborhoods by knocking down blighted structures. The new mortgage program is about "building value" rather than destroying decay.

"There is much more to be done, and we're going to get it done," he said.

Noted in a press release, Detroit Home Mortgage borrowers are required to complete classes in homebuyer education and the risks associated with borrowing more than the appraised value of a home.

The program is aimed at people who want "long-term" investment in the city.

Ian Thibodeau is the business and development reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. He can be reached at ithibode@mlive.com, or follow him on Twitter.